It was thought that the launch of Roland-Garros by Novak Djokovic was not accompanied by any history on Monday. It was bad to know the world number 3, yet solid winner of the American (of Serbian origin) Aleksandar Kovacevic (6-3, 6-2, 7-6) in the first round. When leaving the court Philippe Chatrier, the one who has just launched the conquest of a 23rd Grand Slam tournament in Paris, thus distinguished himself with a gesture which will liven up the debates at the start of Roland-Garros.
The 36-year-old took a few moments to write a message in white marker on the traditional player signing camera. Except that Novak Djokovic wrote, in Cyrillic, a clearly political message on this camera, namely “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia! Stop the violence”. This unexpected episode took place on Monday afternoon, as tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have increased in recent weeks, obviously over Kosovo’s self-declared independence.
Djokovic had already taken a position in Australia in 2008
Serbian armed units have thus just approached the border with Kosovo, on the orders of President Aleksandar Vucic. And this after clashes between demonstrators and police, in a city of Kosovo with a Serb majority. This news condemned by France, but also Great Britain, Italy, Germany and the United States, therefore pushed Novak Djokovic to take a stand, Serbian media reported on Monday.
This is not the first time since from his first Grand Slam victory, at the Australian Open in 2008, “Nole” had proclaimed “Kosovo is Serbia”, in support of a rally in Belgrade. We are curious to see how the organizers of Roland-Garros will react, since the tournament charter prohibits players from publicly displaying political or religious opinions. It is therefore not certain that there will be much talk in the coming days of his second round against the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics.